I love a good sauce on my steak. A vinegary chimichurri, a freshly made pesto, even just a simple drizzle of truffle oil or citrus juice to finish it off. Last night we had a Sunday steak dinner that could not have been more lovely. We sailed up to Port Madison, a charming little spot on the northern edge of Bainbridge Island, and dropped anchor. We fired up the grill, threw our skirt steak on, opened a nice bottle of wine, and sat back to watch the sunset…

Though our delicious Thundering Hooves grass fed beef needed minimal seasoning, we mixed up a nice Lemon Scallion Butter Sauce to even further brighten up the flavors of the meat. We sautéed garlic, scallions, and the zest of a lemon in a bit of olive oil. Once the flavors had sufficiently infused the oil we blended in some butter, then spooned the tasty sauce on top of the steak (it would also be wonderful on grilled chicken or fish).

Darn it anyway that Monday came around! At 6:30 a.m. this morning we pulled anchor and set sail back to Seattle and the Foodista offices. (Note to self: get wireless Internet so we can work from boat).

Here’s our sauce recipe:

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Categories:	Meat & Poultry • Sauces • Uncategorized • condiments	Leave a Comment
Tags:	beef • butter • citurs • grass fed beef • lemon butter • lemon sauce • Lemons • sauce • skirt steak • thundering hooves

Last Sunday at Powells’ bookstore in Portland, Oregon, we were fortunate to attend a book signing by the legendary Marcella Hazan. Mrs. Hazan is to Italian cooking as Julia Child was to French cooking. We were thrilled that the octogenarian was still out and about and signing books! Namely her new memoir Amarcord: Marcella Remembers.

If you aren’t familiar with Marcella Hazan, please allow me to enlighten you. She is well-worth the enlightenment.

Born in a fishing village in the gastronomic region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy, Marcella spent her young adulthood studying not food, but science, and earned doctorates in natural sciences and biology. In 1967, after marrying her Italian-born American husband, Victor, they moved from Italy to New York.

Up until that time, she told us, she had never cooked, and her Italophile new husband loved food. But, she remembered the tastes and smells of the dishes that were prepared in her childhood home (”amarcord” means “I remember” in her Romagnolo dialect), so the scientist in her began experimenting with cooking and soon was able to reproduce those dishes. Shortly after, she started giving Italian cooking lessons in their apartment, then in 1969 she started her own cooking school. Craig Claiborne, then the food editor for the New York Times, asked her to contribute recipes to the newspaper.

We can thank Marcella for bringing Italian cooking to America. Her first award-winning book and its sequel were compiled into my personal favorite the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a must-read for any cooking enthusiast. Her cooking focuses on authentic, traditional cooking. When asked by an audience member at Powell’s what her secrets to great cooking were she responded in her thick Italian accent, “use only a few simple ingredients.”

One of her most popular recipes is for Roast Chicken with Lemons, a dish where you simply season a chicken with salt and pepper, and stuff the cavity with two lemons. I tell you, those roast chickens at Costco that have apparently won some award for best roast chicken have nothing on Marcella. Her recipe is simply the best darn roast chicken.

Ever.

Roast Chicken with Lemons
Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

3 – 4 lb chicken
2 small lemons
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, inside and out. Remove the neck and all the bits inside, then trim any loose hanging fat. Drain all the water from the inside and pat dry.

Rub generous amounts of salt and pepper on the chicken, and sprinkle some inside the cavity as well.

Wash the lemons, then soften them by rolling them with the palm of your hand on the counter. This helps release the juices on the inside. Then, with a skewer or toothpick poke at least 20 holes (through to the pulp) into each lemon.

Stuff the lemons into the cavity, then close up the opening either with toothpicks or trussing needles and string. Don’t close it up air tight or the chicken may burst during cooking.

Put the chicken breast down in a roasting pan. The chicken is self-basting, so it won’t stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes. After 30 minutes, carefully turn the chicken over (breast up). Try not to break the skin. If the skin remains intact then it will swell up like a balloon, making for a fun presentation!

Cook for another 30-35 minutes, then turn the oven up to 400 degrees and continue roasting for another 20 minutes.

Note: Save the bones, for this makes the best soup stock too!

Can you tell I was a little excited to meet them? What a grin.

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Categories:	Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Italian • Meat & Poultry	4 Comments
Tags:	chicken • citrus • Food • foodista • Italian • Lemons • Marcella Hazan • poultry • Powell's • roast chicken • Victor Hazan

When life throws you lemons make limoncello!

The first time I had limoncello (lee-mohn-CHEH-loh) was years ago in Sorrento, a charming sea town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy known for it’s narrow windy roads, beautiful citrus groves, and well, limoncello.

Limoncello is a digestif made from lemon rinds, alcohol, sugar and water. Although it’s made from lemons it’s sweet not sour, since it’s made from the rinds and not the juice. It’s sipped icy cold (but never with ice) after dinner from small glasses.

Not only is limoncello delicious, it’s easy and inexpensive to produce, containing only a few simple ingredients and requiring just a bit of time to mature. Perfect for holiday gifts!

Limoncello

15 lemons
2 (750 ml) bottles minimum 80 proof alcohol (good quality vodka or grappa)
4 cups sugar
5 cups water

Note: If you use Everclear or some more pure alcohol, dilute it to about 40%, the strength of vodka. Below that, it will not properly extract all the oils from the rinds.

Step 1
Wash the lemons with hot water to remove wax; pat dry. Zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel. You want to take great care while zesting to make sure you are only getting the outer part of the rind. The pith is too bitter and will spoil your limoncello!

Step 2
Put the peels in a large 1 gallon plus glass jar and add one bottle of alcohol and seal tightly. Leave the jar to steep in a cool, dark place until the peels lose their color, at least 2 weeks.

Step 3
After the initial 2 week resting period, combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan and cook until thickened and clear. Let the syrup cool. Add the syrup and the additional bottle of alcohol to the limoncello mixture from Step 2. Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days.

Step Four
Strain out the lemon peels through a coffee filter or cheesecloth and pour the limoncello into another container. Press down to remove all the alcohol and oils that you can from the peels before tossing them. Stir the liquid with a clean plastic or wooden spoon. Put the liqueur in clean bottles (I prefer swing top bottles), seal tightly and leave the finished bottles for at least 1 week before using.

Store your limoncello in the freezer to enjoy icy cold – it won’t freeze.

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Categories:	Beverages • Fruit • Italian	22 Comments
Tags:	amalfi coast • Beverages • digestif • digestives • foodista • Italian • lemon • Lemons • limoncello • Liqueur • sorrento

Lemon curd is a quintessentially English treat. It reminds me of tea at Harrod’s in London when I was in the 5th grade. It’s delicious slathered over scones with cream or baked in a fruit tart. I especially love it when it makes you pucker.

The following recipe, from the cookbook Once Upon A Tart, was prepared the other night by my friend. She made another batch from a Martha Stewart recipe and, in a blind tasting, this one won hands down. While Martha’s was delicious, Once Upon A Tart’s had a cleaner, more pure lemon flavor, even though both were made from fresh lemons.

Give it a try…

Lemon Curd (from Once Upon A Tart)

Grate the rind of one lemon and set aside. Beat 8 egg yolks in a bowl to break them up. Pour the yolks through a sieve into a heavy-bottomed pot to strain out the white membranes. Stir in 1 ¼ cups sugar and ¾ cups lemon juice (3-4 lemons) and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden or heatproof rubber spatula in a figure-eight motion, making sure to scrape the edges of the pot.

Continue cooking until the curd thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon. Lift the spoon out of the curd and run your finger down the length of the spoon. If your finger leaves a line, the curd is thick enough. If the curd runs and covers up the line, it’s too runny and needs to cook longer.

Remove the pan from the heat. Add 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter and the lemon zest, and stir until the butter is completely melted. Pour the curd into a small bowl, and let cool to room temperature. Cover the cooled curd, and refrigerate until you’re ready to use. Lemon curd will last in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Stand in front of the refrigerator late at night, in your pajamas, and spoon-feed yourself lemon curd.

Sweet dreams…

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Categories:	Baked Goods • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Sweets • desserts	5 Comments
Tags:	citrus • curd • Dessert • Food • foodista • lemon • lemon curd • Lemons • Sweets

The sun has finally decided to show itself here in Seattle, which means the barbecue has once again been hauled out of the garage and has settled back into its usual spot on the patio. At last. What better way to wrap up a nice sunny afternoon than to throw something tasty down on the grill?

For tonight’s grilling pleasure I chose one of our favorite cuts of meat: flank steak. Flank steak (sometimes known as London broil) is cut from the belly of the cow, is long and flat, and relatively tough – but very flavorful! Since it tends to be on the chewier side most preparations call for marinating or braising in order to break it down.

Another foolproof method is to simply sear it on high heat until medium rare and slice it thinly. The results are tender, tasty and succulent pieces of steak. Here’s one of my favorite crowd-pleasing preparations:

3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely minced
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon and the zest
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
Baby arugula
Parmigiano reggiano cheese
Truffle oil (optional)

Rub the garlic and salt on one side of the steak then spread the chopped parsley, creating a paste. Drizzle with olive oil, and add fresh ground black pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Grill on high for 4-6 minutes on each side, turning 90 degrees to get those nice grill marks. Let your meat rest about 10 minutes before slicing.

Thinly slice the meat against the grain and at an angle. On a platter, make a bed of fresh baby arugula and lay your slices of meat on top. Shave slices of parmigiano reggiano on top, add some lemon zest, give it a little drizzle of truffle oil and you’re good to go!

We served this al fresco along with a simple Caprese salad and rosemary roasted red potatoes.

Note: How can you tell if your steak is medium-rare? Poke the steak with either your finger or fork. If it feels squishy then it’s rare. The tip of your nose feels like a well-done steak. If you want a visual guide check out The Finger Test For Doneness from the Science of Cooking.

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Categories:	Cooking tips • Entertaining • Herbs • Italian • Meat & Poultry	2 Comments
Tags:	arugula • barbecuing • BBQ • caprese salad • Cooking tips • flank steak • Food • foodista • grilling • Herbs • Italian • Lemons • meat • recipe • steak • truffle oil

Welcome to the world of black lemons! If you’ve never had the opportunity to try these Middle Eastern goodies go to World Spice Merchants and order some. They’re completely dried and look inedible, but in fact their sweet-tartness is so flavorful you’ll want to use it in about everything: soups, stews, tagines, couscous, even sprinkled on salads. The tangy depth that the lemons add is wonderfully unusual and earthy.

We ground a couple of them (use a mortar and pestle, a clean coffee grinder or a microplane grater) and, with other spices, created a delicious North African-esque chicken dish. We just kind of created it as we went along, so sorry folks, no recipe. That’s the beauty of improvisational cooking!

Check out Syrian Zahtar and Black Lemon Spiced Chicken from The Hunger. In a word: Mmmm.

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Categories:	Fruit • Middle Eastern	3 Comments
Tags:	chicken • citrus • cooking • dried lemons • Food • foodista • lemon • Lemons • Middle Eastern • North African • preserved lemons • recipe • recipes • spice • spices